Yarnbombing in downtown Little Rock.

Mother and daughter yarn bomb together.

Yesterday as part of the Arkansas Literary Fest in Little Rock several people gathered to yarn bomb the area around the river market library and the youth section of the library itself.  Sometimes called knit graffiti, yarn bombing involves taking knitted objects and decorating typically urban landscapes, an attempt to add beauty and color to the sometimes inorganic city landscape.   (You can read the Art of the Rural post envisioning yarn bombing in rural areas by clicking here).  It’s important to also note that these activities are not wasteful, utalyzing scrap afghans and other knitted objects that were gathering dust somewhere in a back closet.  Because they’re made from natural fibers they’ll dry out and withstand the elements for some time.

We started out with a small group but pretty soon many passersby—both children and adults— joined in on the fun. By the end of the afternoon yarn poms hung from the branches alongside the spring flowers while formerly discarded knits enveloped tree limbs and park benches.

This event was held in conjunction with a talk by Gale Zucker, co-author and photographer for the book Craft Activism: People, Ideas, and Projects from the New Community of Handmade and How You Can Join In.  Yarn bombing is just one of many craft activist approaches detailed in her research.   She  and co-author Joan Tapper also highlight others who might be familiar to readers including Carolyn Mazloomi and the Women of Color Quilter’s Network, Virginia Fleck and her mandalas made from recycled shopping bags, and the Red Scarf Project, which provides scarves to students who were a part of the foster care system.  The book is a compilation of ideas, crafter profiles, and patterns for those who want to join in on the action.

I had a chance to speak with Gale about her research, as well as several others who either attended the event or simply got drawn into the bombing as passers by.   I’ll be posting a radio story featuring their comments sometime this upcoming week.  Until then, here are a few photos from the day.

Besides the great conversations we had with Gayle, it was wonderful to see how many passersby soon began to join in, picking up scrap knitting squares and sewing them onto the trees, park benches, and shrubs. As intended, a yarn bomb sparks conversation between strangers, leads to discussions about the nature of handmade, and helps us all notice our surroundings.  I even found a home for one of my fingerless glove prototypes, which now graces the trunk of a tree.  And my twin boys got their stroller yarn bombed, for sure one of the highlights of their day!

Were you at the yarn bombing or want to get involved in Little Rock yarn bombing?  Let’s discuss and get together with others who want to do the same.

Poms hanging from the trees

Passersby join in and help.

Partice, one of the main organizers, bombs a tree trunk.

Donated yarn pieces for the bombing.

A truly intergenerational activity.

Bombing the park bench.

The young ladies made this wonderful collection. Gale Zucker in the background.

You know you love granny squares!

The yarn blended in with the flowers for a magical look.

One of the youth library workers joins in to help with the sewing on of the flowers.

Mother and daughter.

The Seed and the Story for April 4: Tatum, Wild Foods, and Medicine in Our Backyards

The Seed and the Story is a weekly column exploring folklife, sustainability, oral history, human rights,and community in Yell County, Arkansas.   The column is published in the Post Dispatch and is syndicated in the Courier.  Please remember to support your local paper and independent media!  The Seed and the Story column is just of many features you can find on the Boiled Down Juice.  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.  If you enjoy our posts, please tell a friend. And thanks for reading.

Last week Billy Joe Tatum of Melbourne, Arkansas, a master of Ozark wild foods, passed away at the age of eighty. She researched and wrote extensively about wild foods, appeared on national television programs like the Tonight Show, and cooked for famous artists and politicians at her home she referred to as “Wildflower.”  Tatum first began learning about wild foods from members of the Izard County community where her husband took a job as a country doctor. In the rural community surrounding Melbourne, the tradition of foraging for edible and medicinal plants was alive and well. Over the years she began to learn from her husband’s patients how to locate and use these healing resources and incorporate them into creative dishes she concocted such as “Dandelion Bud Omelets” “Watercress Soup,” or “Apple Spearmint Salad.”  Much of this information can be found in her book, Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook:  An Illustrated Guide to 70 Wild Plants and Over 350 Irresistible Ways to Eat Them.

A few weekends ago I attended the first in a series of events entitled “Wild Plant Walk and Edible Foraging Series.” Led by members of Elevate Arkansas, an urban wellness center located in Little Rock, the walk took place in Allsop Park where we foraged for abundant springtime plants such as dandelion, clover, plantain grass, henbit, and greenbrier.  Elevate director Jeff Dempsey carried Tatum’s book along with us throughout the walk, turning to it several times and mentioning it as the best source for identifying and eating wild plants in Arkansas.  Thanks to Tatum’s diligent research, and her time spent learning from elders of the rural community, these traditions are alive and applicable, even in the big city.

Tatum traveled the world in search of wild plants, and in interviews and articles she frequently mentioned that you don’t have to hike deep into the woods to find an abundance of edible options.  Dandelion, for example, may be considered a weed, but they’re loaded with nutrients, have healing properties that lend to their reputation as a cure-all, and, better yet, they’re surprisingly tasty.  You can use them to make tea, mix the greens into a salad, or throw a bunch of the stems into some batter and fry up a tasty fritter.  On our walk we also sampled blooms from a redbud tree, which are in bloom throughout the state.  The buds are tasty on their own, but some people like to make them into a sweet jelly, which solidifies into the most beautiful deep shade of red.  My favorite plant we sampled that day was wood sorrel, a wild version of the plant I mentioned in last week’s column. This wild version is wonderfully tart, tastes much like a raspberry, and is absolutely loaded with vitamin C.

Foraging for wild plants is a learned skill, and you must be sure you’re correctly identifying the plant before you eat it.  It’s a tradition well-worth learning, and I’m thankful the kind folks at Elevate Arkansas are bringing this skill to an urban area.  We owe much gratitude to the late Billy Joe Tatum for her pioneering work and for reminding us that sometimes the best medicine is growing in our own backyard.   Do you forage for wild foods either in the woods or in your neighborhood?  Have you ever heard your elders tell of healing plants or remember using them as a child?  I’d love to hear about it.  To see images from the Wild Plant Walk and to hear the radio piece go here.

The next walk will be taking place this coming Saturday, April 7.  Visit Elevate Arkansas for information.

More readings:

Here is a wonderful post about Tatum’s life by one of her friends, the blogger at Jim Long’s Garden.  

Wild Plant Walk and Edible Foraging Series

Jeff Dempsey talks to participants on the walk.

Last week I had a chance to attend the first in the series of Elevate Arkansas’ Wild Plant Walk and Edible Foraging Series.  Led by Elevate Arkansas director Jeff Dempsey, the walk took place at Allsop Park in Little Rock where we foraged for wild food ranging from plantain grass to wood sorrel.

I took my recording equipment along and produced this radio piece for the Ozarks at Large on Public Radio KUAF 91.3 FM.

Elevate Arkansas’s Wild Plant and Edible Foraging Walk by Boiled Down Juice

Here are a few photos from the event.  All photos by Rachel Townsend of Collaborate Arkansas.  

Headed toward the trail. Elevate Arkansas director, Jeff Dempsey on the right.

On the trail.Wood Sorrel.Jeff Dempsey talks to participants on the walk.

Wood Sorrel.

Hinbit.

Dempsey points out that you can eat the blossoms of a redbud tree.

Nutrient-rich plantain grass.

“The Many Variations of the Arkansas Tattoo” in the Arkansas Times

Tesuansey Link. Photo by Brian Chilson of the Arkansas Times. Read the article to see more photos.

An article about the Us Tattooed Kids:  Arkansas Project came out in the Arkansas Times today.  Below you’ll find the first few paragraphs. Follow the “read more” link to read the entire article via the Arkansas Times site.

The next step in this project will be working toward a radio piece and a hardback book….and possibly more projects.

You can help us move the project forward by submitting your Arkansas tattoo photo and story and joining the conversation at the project’s facebook page here.

For at least a decade now, Arkansans — both native-born and transplants — have been choosing to mark their bodies with representations of the Natural State. Razorback tattoos have long been popular, but these Arkansas tattoos are more topographical, a marker of geography and a symbol of home. They range from simple outlines with a star or heart marking a hometown to ornate designs involving a birdhouse, a cotton plant or an area code.

For Cheyenne Matthews, co-host of the “Shoog Radio” show on 88.3 FM KABF, it’s the state Capitol, surrounded by stylized clouds and the word “Arkansas” inside a ribbon at the building’s base. The design, which graces her forearm, is part of a series of images created by Caleb Pritchett of Electric Heart Tattoos in Little Rock to help raise money for the show. “Everything we play and do is Arkansas-based,” Matthews said. “It’s a grassroots movement towards Arkansas stuff in general, events and music.”

Anthony Buckaloo and artist, Scott Diffee, the Parlor in Rose City. Photo by Brian Chilson.

Continue reading the story at the Arkansas Times here:

Click here to continue reading at the Arkansas Times site.   

Arkansas Tattoo Project Update: Visiting the Parlor in Rose City/North Little Rock.

Alinda Bennett at the Parlor gives Anthony Buckaloo his second Arkansas tattoo.

For the past few months we’ve been documenting the prevelance of Arkansas-themed tattoos and the stories behind them. The response has been amazing and generated many conversations about Arkansas as both a place and an idea.

Working in partnership with Shoog Radio on KABF, we’ve set up a Facebook page where people can upload their own photos and stories. To learn more visit the page here: Us Tattooed Kids: Arkansas Project.

And I’ve also been visiting with people, taking along my recorder and camera listening to stories about why people choose to mark their bodies with symbols of the place they call home. In the next few weeks a print piece will be coming out in the Arkansas Times and an audio essay for KUAF Public Radio will air later this spring. But I hope this project will keep going and become more community led. So if you’ve got an Arkansas tattoo or know someone who does, please spread the word and upload your photos and stories to the page above or contact me directly. We want to document a wide range of stories and voices, and we’d love to include yours.

Here’s a short audio clip from one of my favorite interviews so far, an interview with Anthony Buckaloo who, during the interview, is getting his second Arkansas tattoo from Alina Bennett at the Parler in Rose City/North Little Rock.

In this clip he’s speaking with Parlor owner Scott Diffee about his first tattoo, an Arkansas outline. During the interview he’s getting the tattoo shown above. He talks about growing up in a low income neighborhood in North Little Rock and how much he loves his home. Here’s a short clip.

[mp3j track="Anthony-B.mp3"]
I’ll be posting more clips this week from other interviews. Help us document the wide diversity of Arkansas tattoos and the stories and people behind them. Visit the facebook page here and tell your Arkansas story.

Oxford American Offices Open in South Main Neighborhood

Soon to be event location for Oxford American. Little Rock South Main District.

The Oxford American magazine recently purchased Juanita’s old space in downtown Little Rock, and this past Saturday they hosted an open house for the new location.

The majority of the magazine staff will continue to operate out of their offices at UCA in Conway and this location will serve as both a home base for the business office and an event location. Someday soon this front space (pictured above) will be used for Oxford American sponsored events and shows ranging from live music to art openings.  With its location just up the street from Community Bakery, the Root Cafe, Bernice Garden,  Boulevard Bread, and other South Main locations, it all sounds very promising.

We got there late in the day after most folks were already  gone, but this photo gives you a good example of the location’s potential.  If you’ve spent time in Little Rock you’ve probably seen many shows in this venue over the years, so it’s exciting the building will still be used for live music. Some of my favorite shows there were Southern Culture on the Skids and Victoria Williams.  What about you?

13th Annual Music Issue.

If you haven’t picked up a copy already, the annual Music Issue is out and this year features music from all over the state of Mississippi.  Check it out there.

Arkansas Tattoo Project Update

Native Arkansan, Rapper Cboddy of Little Rock with the Little Rock symbol and ARK in graffiti-style letters.

From Cboddy:  ”I was doing shows from state to state and I got to represent where I’m from in a way.  And what better way than to put the official Little Rock logo stamped on my arm.”  

Discussing what he loves about Arkansas: “Everybody knows everybody, so to me I look at everybody like family.  Everybody is so open-armed, to me anyway.”

Recently we began a documentation project examining the diversity of ways people choose to represent their home state of Arkansas on their body.   The project is in its beginning stages, and we’ve taken the documentation process online so it can be community-driven and grow organically.

Since we started the online Facebook version of the Us Tattooed Kids:  Arkansas Project last week, thirty-six tattoo photos have been submitted and we have 236 likes!  We also started a Twitter account for the project, which you can follow here.  I’ve also been doing interviews with as many people as possible—either online or in person—and many of these stories will be featured in the upcoming article.  In case your unfamiliar with the project, you can go here to read all about it.

Here are just a few photo updates we’ve received and a glimpse into some of the things people are saying about their tattoos and the larger concept of Arkansas as home.  If you know of someone with an Arkansas tattoo, please spread the word.  We want to hear from you!  To read more and join the conversation, visit us online on facebook or Twitter.

Basic state outline uploaded by John Crouch, a native Arkansan and classical composer who now lives in Maryland.

From an email interview with Crouch:  ”I had been saying for about a year that I wanted it. I don’t know if I would have gotten it if I still lived in Arkansas, but living in Baltimore for 6+ years made me miss Arkansas.”      ”After high school in Springdale, my formative early adult years were spent in Fayetteville. Now I’ve lived in Baltimore for six and a half years and I’m still amazed at how much more interesting and progressive a small Southern town can be than a fairly large Northeastern (technically, to some, a Southern Mid-Atlantic) city. I’ve had more than one instance of proclaiming the virtues of my small college town and how it adopted progressive causes and issues years prior to Baltimore.”

Here’s a few more images that have been posted to the site.  We’re still waiting to learn more about them.  But the images are pretty strong as is.  What’s your story?  

Submitted by tattoo artist, Scott Diffee. Waiting for more info on this tattoo.

I've been wondering if there are other city specific tattoos besides Little Rock. There are! Tattoo by Scott Diffee at the Parlor.

Skyline of LR. Tattoo by Scott Diffee.

Director Sharon La Cruise Discusses the Film, “Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock.

Film maker Sharon La Cruise. From PBS.

Last week’s Friday Video was a preview of the upcoming film Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock.  Today on the University of Arkansas campus director of the film, Sharon La Cruise, will preset the film and answer questions.

Yesterday Ozarks at Large’s Antoinette Grajeda spoke with La Cruise about the making of the film including her research in Little Rock, her quest to discover why Daisy Bates was not initially seen as potential leader of the movement, Bates’s life as a social and political radical, and a her role in the desegregation of Central High.

“Daisy Bate’s life” La Cruise says, “is the classic example that life really is like ten percent of what happens to you and ninety percent of how you handle it.  Because that is how she lived her life because she could have had many options as far a path she could have went down considering where she came from and what she went through.  And she made a decision to do good with her life.  I’m hoping she’ll be inspirational to young adults….”

To listen to the entire interview go here and click on the link.

In case you missed the Friday Video here it is again.  Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock will be airing nationally on February 2nd at 9:00 pm on the PBS series, Independent Lens.  The presreening will be held today at 2:00 PM at the Reynolds Center on the U of A campus.   The event is hosted in connection with Martin Luther King Jr. week and organized by the University Libraries and Diversity Affairs.

Voices from the Root Cafe.

From the Root Cafe

You may recall a recent article for the Arkansas Times about the Root Cafe and their sustainable business model.

I also had the opportunity to visit with Root owners Jack and Corri Bristow Sundell about their inspiration for the cafe and just a few of the life events that led up to fulfilling this dream.

You can hear Jack and Corri tell more about their story via this radio piece which aired this past Monday on the Ozarks at Large program on KUAF 91.3 FM, Public Radio out of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Visiting with Jack and Corri from The Root Cafe in Little Rock by Boiled Down Juice

To learn more about the Root visit their webpage or follow them on facebook or twitter. 

Continue reading »

Loblolly Creamery Opens in the Green Corner Store.

From Eat Arkansas.

I got a chance  to check out the new Little Rock-based cremary last night and posted this short review on the Eat Arkansas blog.   Anyone who is a fan of Arkansas-made foods will want to check this out!

Operating out of the historic soda fountain corner of the Green Corner Store on 15th and Main, the newly-opened Loblolly Creamery serves locally made ice cream, sweets and sodas. Inspiration for the business, co-owner Sally Mengle explained, came from the building itself, former home to the C.H. Dawson Drugstore 1905 to 1967. Both she and co-owner Rachel Boswell are passionate about making sweets and ice cream and wanted to honor the building’s rich history.

The business idea “fell in our laps,” Mengle said. “We got to fit the business around the location.”

Continue reading at the Eat Arkansas blog.